Insights for Leaders Navigating
Visibility, Credibility, and Growth.
From media strategy to reputation management, we explore the trends shaping public perception and share the approaches that drive measurable results for growing brands.
In January, Communiqué began working with the Washington Poison Center (WAPC) to help the organization raise awareness of the budget cuts proposed by Washington State Governor Christine Gregoire.
Specifically, our goal was to inform key audiences – state residents, members of the legislature and the media – about the potential impact these budget cuts would have on the WAPC and state residents.
To educate citizens and legislature representatives on the WAPC’s funding situation and encourage the community to speak out on behalf of the WAPC, we recommended the following grassroots strategies:
Launch Letter Writing Campaign – The purpose of the lettering writing campaign for the WAPC was to motivate its network of partners and constituents to write letters or place calls to local lawmakers asking the state to re-instate funding for the WAPC. The letter provided supporters with data points they could communicate with lawmakers from both the WAPC and the Washington State Department of Health about the organization’s invaluable services and how the budget cut would impact state residents.
As a result of our efforts, we helped the WAPC develop valuable letter writing campaign materials that were used to garner support from the WAPC’s network.
Meet with Editorial Boards – We reached out to more than six editorial boards on behalf of WAPC. These groups typically carry tremendous power to advance issues and motivate the community to take action on an issue. The outreach we conducted led to several op-ed opportunities.
Develop and Place an Op-Ed – We partnered with the WAPC to write an op-ed piece for the Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer to drive awareness of the WAPC’s funding situation and convince key audiences to take action with the state’s legislature. Working closely with the WAPC, the team placed the following two op-ed pieces.
– Seattle Times | Save Mr. Yuk from Washington’s budget cuts
– Seattle Post-Intelligencer | State Budget Cuts
It has been a pleasure to support the WAPC. If you are interested in learning more about how you can support the WAPC as it works to re-instate funding, please contact us at (206) 282-4923 or visit: http://www.wapc.org/ActNow.htm
Peter Shankman, host of the popular HARO service, recently hosted a call with a panel of journalists to share advice on how to pitch reporters effectively. On the call were journalists from NPR, Reuters, Crain’s New York, the Indianapolis Business Journal and the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
The journalists unanimously confirmed that pitches remain a crucial source for story ideas and sources. Here are a few valuable insights I gained from the call:
Journalists are doing more with less. Newspapers and media outlets are feeling the economic pinch, and this means reporters have more work and less time. One reporter described his typical day as “frantically busy,” a sentiment echoed by fellow panelists.
Make your pitch succinct. Journalists joked that with the advent of Twitter all pitches should be limited to 140 characters or less; but the truth is that with limited time, journalists are more receptive to pitches that get straight to the point.
The journalists shared their idea of a perfect pitch. All of these objectives should be met within one paragraph.
1. Grab their attention in the first three lines
2. Summarize the topic in a sentence
3. Explain why it’s relevant
4. Provide a question that needs to be answered or tension that makes the story compelling
The pitch should be clear, simple, summarized and easy to digest. You should also indicate that you know who the reporter is and what they cover.
Imagine the headline. One reporter suggested that if you can’t imagine the headline for the story you’re pitching, chances are you shouldn’t be pitching it.
Tie it to a broad trend. If your client launches a new product, it might not be a newsworthy story. But if your client launches a product that can be tied to a prominent trend, it might be worthy of inclusion in an article.
Avoid adjectives. Explaining why your story is newsworthy with a string of adjectives and sound bites is much less effective than providing a few key data points that illustrate your point. The panel of reporters all agreed that they view adjectives like “exciting,” “revolutionary” or “amazing” as extra noise that detract from your pitch.
Manage Expectations. When offering an executive for an interview, be clear about the chances that she will be available to speak with a journalist the same day. If you think the chances are slim, let the reporter know.
When issuing a press release however, always make sure the executive quoted is available to speak with reporters that day. Several reporters complained that all too often they call to speak with the executive quoted in a press release the day it is issued, only to discover that they are unavailable.
Consider the follow-up story. Several journalists mentioned that they often receive pitches from PR people who, after reading a story about a topic relevant to their client, write the author to suggest a follow-up story. But why, the journalists asked, would they publish another story about a topic they just covered? You’re more likely to be successful if you suggest an alternate angle for a follow-up article.
By keeping these tips in mind, you can deliver compelling pitches that interest reporters and garner coverage for your client.
The Obama Administration has done an amazing job of harnessing the power of the Internet to reach the public, communicate the president’s position on important initiatives and gather personal stories of the American people. Through social media tools, e-mails and blogs, President Obama is encouraging open communication and asking his most important audience – you – to share your stories.
To continue the grassroots activism built during his campaign, the president announced in January 2009 the formation of “Organizing for America,” a new group that some are calling the flagship of Obama 2.0.
Organizing for America has collected thousands of stories from people across the nation to learn how they are coping with the economic crisis. For example, on Feb. 17, an e-mail from the president was sent to his list of more than 13 million names asking people to help him measure the recovery plan through the personal stories of people who are struggling to make ends meet.
Collected stories have been published online and can be read here.
According to the Obama Administration, these stories show why a recovery plan is needed. The administration is not only fulfilling its goal to collect stories and build support, but is also garnering the attention of national press such as The New York Times and Reuters.
With an overwhelming number of responses from thousands of Americans, it’s clear that many people favor a quick implementation of the recovery plan – further supporting President Obama’s efforts to push the stimulus bill. This is an excellent example of harnessing social media to build support for a cause.
From a PR perspective, organizations can take a similar approach and leverage the power of their customers to support a new product or initiative. Danskin is one company that successfully employs this approach by sending e-mails to triathlon participants to find out, “Why I Tri,” thereby gathering personal stories to use in outreach efforts.
Organizations can reach out to customers to not only gather valuable insight, but also share their stories with media. Sharing personal stories can help an organization accomplish the following:
Offer media real stories that capture the emotional and functional benefits of a campaign from the consumer perspectives.
Build loyalty with existing customers. Requesting personal stories fosters a connection and tells customers, “You care about me.”
Attract new customers by word-of-mouth marketing. Existing customers can make the best spokespeople for because they are often viewed as trustworthy, since they are not directly affiliated with the organization.
Personal stories also provide organizations with valuable insights. By requesting these stories, organizations find out what resonates most with customers. Stories can also highlight areas where a product or service may be lacking. Ultimately, this can help an organization build stronger products or services that better meet customer demands.
For more information on how to leverage personal stories for your organization, please contact us at [email protected].
How to Handle Crisis Communication the Right Way
New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez has been under a lot of scrutiny lately as news that he took performance-enhancing substances was leaked to the public. In an interview with ESPN’s Peter Gammons, Rodriguez admitted to taking “banned substances” and expressed his regret and apologies for lying to his fans. However, the damage has been done and as local and national media and bloggers continue to speculate about his drug use, his team of PR experts and agents are working to resolve this crisis.
According to a recent PRWeek article, Rodriguez is currently working with several PR and communications specialists to manage this situation. Outside Eyes, a Newport Beach, CA-based agency has been brought onboard to handle the crisis communications.
So what can we all learn from A-Rod’s mistake? Whether you’re a celebrity, athlete, Fortune 1,000 company or startup, crisis communications plans are crucial. The Institute for Crisis Management (ICM), a crisis management consultancy, groups crises that businesses encounter into four broad categories.
1. Acts of God (storms, earthquakes, volcanic action, etc.)
2. Mechanical problems (ruptured pipes, metal fatigue, etc.)
3. Human errors (the wrong valve was opened, miscommunication about what to do, etc.)
4. Management decision or indecisions (the problem is not serious, nobody will find out)
The key to successfully handling a crisis is to prepare for it before it happens. If handled correctly damage to the company or person can be minimized. However, if handled improperly a minor crisis can quickly turn into a devastating event and ruin your company’s reputation.
In order to develop a comprehensive and successful crisis communication plan, consider the following:
Organize a crisis communication team. The team should include key stakeholders such as the company CEO, public relations representatives, vice presidents and team managers. The team will need to identify what steps to take when a crisis occurs and how to alert key audiences such as board members, stockholders, employees, news media, etc.
Be as transparent as possible. Don’t lie about the situation – that’ll only make it worse. Be upfront and reinforce your commitment to solving the issue at hand.
Don’t ignore the situation. Ignoring the situation won’t make it go away. In fact, it may cause a snowball effect and issues that could have been resolved before they happened may threaten the integrity of the company and hinder efforts to solve the crisis.
Learn from the crisis. We’re all human and mistakes are going to happen. But if you or your company makes the same mistake more than once, the public and key stakeholders may not be as willing to forgive you the second time around. Learn from the crisis and put measures into place to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
If you’d like to learn more about how to develop a crisis communications plan, contact us at [email protected]
A recent article in CIO Magazine describes a key aspect of Twitter: etiquette. The article says, “the Twitter community has its own set of unwritten guidelines – or etiquette – that dictates good (or bad) behavior on the service. Some people call it Twittequette.”
For newcomers, learning the right way to engage the Twitter community is an important first step. While it was designed as an open community, the fact remains that many of your colleagues are likely already on Twitter, and you don’t want to risk offending them – or the larger Twitter community – by ignoring etiquette. Here are a few guidelines about “Twittequette” to get you started:
As a general rule, if someone follows you on Twitter you should also follow them, but you can be still be selective. Make sure that you only follow people who you trust and can learn from.
Remember that a tweet is only 140 characters long, and it can easily be misinterpreted if you’re not clear. You may want to pare down sarcasm to avoid being misunderstood.
Tweets are public because they can be picked up by Google or Twitter’s search tool. If you don’t want it to show up on a Google or Twitter search, don’t tweet it.
Make your objectives and identity clear. You might also want to publicly identify what organization you represent.
Make sure your tweets are personal. Remember that your Twitter followers want to hear your personality and views, not the blatant corporate messaging of your employer.
Don’t be selfish. Just as you would want people to respond to a question you ask over Twitter, make sure to respond to others.
Direct messages are a great way to send personal information, but don’t use them for spam. According to the CIO Magazine article, “some marketing and PR professionals have been criticized for sending direct messages that say “thanks for following me” accompanied by a blatant product pitch.”
With these tips in mind, you’re on your way to leveraging Twitter to learn, connect with others and share your story.
Twitter has also spawned new terms that can be confusing to a newcomer. Here are a few commonly used terms, compliments of the Twitter glossary:
Tweet – Not only a message on Twitter but another term for a Twitter user.
@reply– a tweet that is directed to a fellow Twitter user.
ReTweet – to re-post something that someone already posted to their Twitter stream. Usually proceeded with “RT” and “@username” at the beginning of the post to give credit to the person who originally posted.
Tweeter – A user of Twitter (compare: Twitterer).
Tweets – Posts on Twitter by Twitterers.
Want to learn how to leverage social media for yourself or our company? E-mail [email protected].
Last week we had the opportunity to sit down with a local broadcast reporter and secured her perspective on current trends within broadcast media and offered tips for working with broadcast reporters. Below I have outlined some of the information from that discussion.
Trends
The economy is affecting broadcast media. There has been wide coverage about print media feeling the squeeze as subscription and advertising revenues dry up and increasing competition from online sources. Broadcast media are also under pressure to cut costs. With current budget concerns, some broadcast outlets are asking reporters to film their own segments as they cut back on staffing.
Company created B-roll is no longer expected. Broadcast reporters are somewhat skeptical of content provided by companies, and as such, stations are more inclined to generate its own content versus using pre-produced B-roll footage. One notable exception is if the content is something that would not be possible for the outlet to film itself such as covering the launch of a satellite in space.
Broadcast journalists look to their trusted networks for story ideas and to find experts or individuals to flesh out a story. They also use services such as Peter Shankman’s HARO (Help A Reporter Out) and Al’s Morning Meeting as well as Facebook, Twitter and other social networking tools to find resources.
Broadcast outlets are increasingly interested in driving traffic to their Web sites. Stations monitor what stories receive the most interest and comments from viewers. This data helps determine the programming for future coverage.
Tips
Remember to be conversational when pitching broadcast media, and to illustrate how the story can come alive for viewers in a visually interesting manner. Some story ideas are compelling in nature but are not a match for broadcast media because they will not translate effectively into a visual medium. Such stories may be better suited for print media.
When coaching a spokesperson, remind them to speak in a conversational manner, avoid using acronyms or jargon and refrain from phrases such as “as I said already” that can make it difficult to use in the final segment.
Set expectations with spokespeople. A segment on the local news is going to be about the over-arching story and will not be a commercial for the company. The reporter will pull together sound bites from various interviews to help tell the broad story and is not interested in simply highlighting the corporate messaging.
From a PR perspective, it’s more important than ever to think like a broadcast journalist and offer as many resources, visuals, etc. to help them easily pull together the story. As trends such as the economy and social media continue to impact both print and broadcast media outlets, it’s critical to learn how this medium operates and evolve your strategies so you can develop effective pitches that spark the interest of reporters and secure coverage on behalf of your company or client.